A Chireno school teacher is the winner of the East Texas Research Center’s “I Found it in the Archives” contest.
“I Found it in the Archives” contest winner Jacy King and her son, Trevin, are pictured with the staff of the East Texas Research Center at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Jacy King’s winning video entry about a 1906 shooting in downtown Nacogdoches earned her a prize pack from local businesses and the chance to compete nationally. The “I Found it in the Archives” contest is a national event sponsored annually by the Society of American Archivists. Archives around the country hold regional contests, asking their patrons, “What did you find in our archives?”
This year, the ETRC at Stephen F. Austin State University had its biggest response yet from patrons and received several intriguing entries, said Linda Reynolds, director of the ETRC.
“Some of the stories were the retelling of family mysteries; some were about finding long lost ancestors, while others were about learning from the past,” Reynolds said. “The common thread in all of these entries was the unimaginable treasure trove of historical documents located in the ETRC that hold the answers to long-asked questions.”
King submitted a two-minute video about her great-grandfather’s cousin, Dock Watson, who was a lawman in Nacogdoches in 1906. While on patrol one night, he shot an unarmed man that he thought was going to harm him. He turned himself in and served four years in prison. King searched through the documents in the ETRC to find out exactly where the shooting took place. She learned that the shooting happened at the Perkins, Kleas & Mast Mercantile Store located on the square at the site of the original Old Stone Fort and where Commercial Bank of Texas now stands.
For more information about the “I Found it in the Archives” contest and the materials at the ETRC, visit http://library.sfasu.edu/etrc, e-mail asketrc@sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-4100.
